😮‍💨 Still pushing your team?

Hey friends,

As a mission-driven leader, how do you get your team to work together passionately, harmoniously, and ambitiously?

Well, I found the answer in an unlikely place.

A couple of years ago, my partner and I were working on our relationship. At that time we were relatively new to living with each other and were wrestling with the allocation of domestic duties and responsibilities. Who should take the lead, on what task, at what time, and in what order? We gave it a good go, but we were clumsy, and found ourselves returning to a similar feeling of tension between us, which impacted our ability to do the task at hand.

I’d get annoyed, she’d get annoyed, and the recycling was still cluttering the worktop.

The thing is, we loved each other deeply and neither of us wanted this to happen, yet it is exactly what kept coming.

Adamantly, we believed that the other person was causing the problem and the world could be so much better, if only they just got on board with what we were doing.

Well, you can only do something for so long before realising it's obviously not working. We can only control ourselves, so that’s where I decided to start. How could I go about things in a different way?

Today, after much forgiveness and persistence, Liv and I work together smoothly, we are both striving for our dreams, and yes, the washing up gets done. For a neurodivergent household, it feels nothing short of miraculous.

Somehow, in our messiness, we stumbled on something that truly worked. Years later, we realised that there was an official name for it: _servant leadership_.

## **An idea whose time has come**

It is an idea coined in 1970, but it can be found in ancient wisdom from over 2,000 years ago.

Servant leadership is the consciousness of a leader that feels so secure in their own authority that they use it to serve the people who work with them, rather than the other way round.

When you reframe your purpose as a leader, the rewards to performance are incredible, but more importantly, the rewards to your soul will fill your own heart with hope, and the hearts of those around you.

Today, it doesn’t take long to find an example of the old way of being, you know, those who demand to be on top of the order: a king in his realm - be it a nation, house, or an office. Here, you’ll find the ‘subjects’ are often marginalised, tired, and unhappy. It is commonly a man in this position but not exclusively.

If we look out at the world, how many still lord it over us? We all see through their bravado. I firmly believe that we are in a time where the foundations of the old world are weakening. An energy that has started to ebb away, albeit with a fierce desperation to cling on and fight for its survival.

In this old way, everyone is out on their own, dog eat dog, striving individually, competing with those above and around them. The new way goes beyond rigid power structures that enables us to raise each other up, together (just imagine that brave new world!).

I believe servant leadership is an idea for whose time has come.

As the old breaks down and the new has yet to settle in, we feel awkward and conflicted in the messy middle. This is where we keep our eyes ahead, on what we're trying to achieve. For this letter: a team that works together passionately, harmoniously, and ambitiously.

As a leader in your organisation, how can you serve your team in the forgotten and unglamorous places like reception, cleaning, or maintenance?

## **Build on trust and love**

For us to spark a transformation, we must adjust our rational mind and expand into the realm of emotion. They come together, but I will start with the mind.